Terraform variable from gitlab CI/CD variables

I understand that CI/CD variables can be used in HCL by counting on the fact that having them declared them with a TF_VAR_ prefix in the environment will enable me to look them up as input variables, then use them in the .tf file where I need them.

I did:

• set my variable via the UI in the GitLab project, as TF_VAR_ibm_api_key, then masked it.
• write a variable block for it in main.tf
• call it where I need it in the same file main.tf
• tried including the variable in variables.tf, same result
• read the documentation from gitlab and from terraform, but I'm not getting this right.

This is my main.tf file:

variable ibm_api_key {
}

terraform {
  required_version = ">= 0.13"
required_providers {
    ibm = {
    source = "IBM-Cloud/ibm"
    }
 }
}

provider "ibm" {
  ibmcloud_api_key = var.ibm_api_key
}

Expected behavior: the variable is passed from the CI/CD and added to the HCL code.

Current behavior: during ´plan´, the job falls with error code 1

$ terraform plan
var.ibm_api_key
  Enter a value: ╷
│ Error: No value for required variable
│ 
│   on main.tf line 1:
│    1: variable ibm_api_key {
│ 
│ The root module input variable "ibm_api_key" is not set, and has no default
│ value. Use a -var or -var-file command line argument to provide a value for
│ this variable.
╵

• although logically it can't seem to be the issue, I tried formatting the variable call as string interpolation, like:

  provider "ibm" { ibmcloud_api_key = "${var.ibm_api_key}" } naturally to no avail.

• although logically it can't seem to be the issue, I tried defining a type for the variable:

  variable ibm_api_key { type = string } naturally to no avail.

• In order to check if variables are passed from the CI/CD settings to the gitlab runner's environment, I added a variable that is neither protected nor masked, and assigned string inserted a double check:

  • echo ${output_check}
  • echo ${TF_VAR_ibm_api_key}

which does not result in an error, but are not being printed either. Only the "echo" commands appear in the output.

$ echo ${output_check}
$ echo ${TF_VAR_ibm_api_key}
Cleaning up project directory and file based variables 00:01
Job succeeded

The error was in the CI/CD settings. The variables were set to be exclusively passed to protected branches. I was pushing my code to an unprotected one, which prevented variables being passed. When merging the code to a protected branch, the variables showed up correctly. Variables are also correctly imported to Terraform, with the expected exclusion of the TF_VAR_ prefix.

TL;DR If you're having this issue in GitLab's CI/CD check your CICD variables' setting for protected branches, and if the branch you're pushing to corresponds to that setting.